British plant-based drugs firm Phytopharm Plc said on Wednesday it had successfully completed the final stage of its proof of principle study on P57, a treatment for obesity derived from a rare cactus.
The firm, which is also developing a treatment for Alzheimer`s disease from an Asian plant and a drug for bowel cancer from curry spice turmeric, said there was a statistically significant reduction in the average daily calorie intake of patients who were given P57 compared with a placebo.
Phytopharm, which has sold the marketing rights for P57 to Pfizer Inc, the world`s biggest drug company, also reported a pre-tax loss of 2.877 million pounds ($4.09 million) in the year ended August 31, up from 2.183 million the year before. Bureau Report